Friday, 21 December 2012

Christmas and Geographic Information System (GIS)


According to the Biblical tales, three wise men travelled from the East to visit infant Jesus at Bethlehem. They were guided by stars.

It is common wisdom that the angle between the horizon and North Star (Polaris) defines the latitude. They would have certainly relied upon the Polaris to a great extent to reach their destination.

Will this journey qualify as one of the early examples of spaced based navigation?

Perhaps coordinate based navigation systems were well developed and widely used during those times. However, it was only during the middle of previous century that these got formally christened as Geographic Information System.   

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